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Financial Transparency
The prospect of GV's' Financial Transparency has been brought up. Ethan sums it up: basically, it sounds like there are two big transparency questions on the table: 1.) to what extent do we detail the amounts of funding we're getting from foundations and corporations and what, if any, strings are attached? 2.) and do we decide to disclose, in some fashion, how that money gets spent? David Says: Here are some excerpts from the John Mackey article, "Open Book Company" ---- At Whole Foods Market, one of our more unusual management practices is to let all team members look up what anyone in the company is being paid. It's a system we put in place a long time ago. most companies keep wages a secret because there are significant injustices, and they'd prefer people not know about them. But when wages are secret, people tend to think many people are getting paid more than they really are. Because we make our pay very transparent, people can see what everyone else is making so they can see that the system is fundamentally fair. When there are injustices, they are clearly seen and can be corrected. Anyone can ask, "How come Tom is making $3 an hour more than me?" Team leaders can say, "If you did what Tom did and had that level of responsibility, I'd pay you that same amount." And if in fact Toom has too good a deal, it brings that injustice to the light of day, and that will get corrected over time. If you're giving someone a pay increase, you're not doing it secretly - you know everyone is going to find out about it, so you'd better make sure in your own mind that you can defend your own pay decisions. Envy is always going to be there in any compensation system. The advantage in a transparent system is the envy can come out in the open and be dealt with. ---- That's the gist of it. He goes on to talk about capping CEO salaries, hiring by committee, etc. I guess the important part is that Mackey doesn't say that Whole Foods discloses salaries to the outside world, but rather just to fellow workers. I took it the extra step and recommended GV go open book for everyone because we depend on the GV community to succeed. But then the issue becomes not just what should the regional editors be paid in comparison to the managing editor, but also what the contributors should be paid for their work. And what the translators should be paid for theirs, etc. You could even make the argument that a comment adds to the net value of Global Voices and should be rewarded. Economy 2.0 ... sigh. So here's my proposal: * Full internal disclosure, good vibes, lots of hugs, singing kumbaya. * Full public disclosure of where all our funding comes from and how much it is * Annual public financial worksheet that breaks down our expenses over conferences, "staff," and technical costs so that the community at large can speak up with a critical voice if they think funding is being poorly used. Looking forward to hearing others' thoughts. --Oso 10:58, 20 Dec 2005 (EST) Overall I agree with you but have a question and comment. In point 3 "Annual public financial....." Do you envisage a breakdown of each individual salary or just the amount that goes towards "staff". If it is the latter then I can go with this. I think full disclosure of salaries within "team members" is an excellent idea but question whether it is necessary to publicise to all and sundry. Personally I am not bothered who knows what I earn but for many people this might be problematic for a number of reasons and we have to consider that. --Sokari 8:48, 21 Dec 2005 (GMT+1) Sokari, I agree. I meant just an overall breakdown of "staff." --Oso 13:26, 21 Dec 2005 (EST)